Subpoenaing Luther on Questions of Polygyny

The study discussed debatable questions of Martin Luther’s support to polygyny, which are considered perennial enough to warrant a rejoinder of curricular relevance to Biblical Christianity and theology from a contemporary African perspective. Accordingly, the study proposed that the curriculum of Biblical theology is a tool for deliberating on Luther’s stand in support of polygyny. Also encapsulated in this proposition is that the curriculum of Biblical theology is consequential to building a parameter for addressing questions of polygyny in African Christianity. The study pursued two purposes. Purpose 1: to consider the ways through which a contemporaneous proxy rejoinder to subpoena on Luther on perennial questions of polygyny can be delimited in the curricular documents of Biblical theology for students in Africa. Purpose 2: to deliberate on how a contemporaneous proxy rejoinder to subpoena on Luther on perennial questions of polygyny can be delimited in pedagogy towards facilitating the curriculum of Biblical theology by teachers in Africa. The study was facilitated by the qualitative research methodology, via which primary historical documents were examined primarily using the documentary analytical method. A key conclusion of the study is that, the abundance of evidences in Scripture in favor of both monogamy and polygyny makes opposing either monogamy or polygyny as an exercise against Biblical revelation in its various stages of unfolding. A fundamental recommendation from the study is that Christians gifted in various areas of pastoral and pulpit ministries who, because they are linked to polygyny, are deprived of opportunities to serve in the current formal church systems, need to start thinking, strategizing, working, and leading all who need to identify with a movement of the Holy Spirit, towards establishing more polygyny-compliant churches at both local and denominational levels, or more actively participate in such churches so that they would become more solidified.